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Immunization Experiments with Recombinant Coxiella burnetii Proteins in a Murine Infection Model
Author(s) -
TYCZKA JUDITH,
EBERLING SANDRA,
BALJER GEORG
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1355.022
Subject(s) - recombinant dna , coxiella burnetii , immunization , vaccination , biology , virulence , fusion protein , virology , antigen , q fever , spleen , microbiology and biotechnology , immune system , immunology , gene , biochemistry
A bstract : Previous attempts to develop Q fever vaccines were less successful in that the vaccines caused unacceptable side effects or failed to be protective. In this study, we tested the efficacy of a mixture of eight recombinant Coxiella burnetii ( C. b. ) proteins in sublethal challenge infections with mice. Eight potential C. b. virulence genes (Omp, Pmm, HspB, Fbp, Orf410, Crc, CbMip, and MucZ) were overexpressed in E. coli as his ‐tagged fusion proteins and partially purified. All recombinant proteins but rPmm proved to be antigenic in BALB/c mice when administered as protein mixtures. For efficacy testing, mice were immunized with an adjuvanted mixture of the eight recombinant proteins and subsequently challenged intraperitoneally with the C. b. isolate Nine Mile RSA493 (1.8 × 10 8 C. b. ). Only animals vaccinated with the licensed Q fever vaccine Q‐Vax™ (vaccination control) exhibited milder symptoms and minor gain of spleen and liver weights. In summary, clinical examinations and dissection of mice immunized with the eight recombinant C. b. proteins did not indicate a protective immune response after test infection.